Amy Gile – Why a Technology Company?
The question I am most frequently asked is, “How in the world did you end up starting Silverdraft?”
When you consider that I started in front of the camera, and it took me until I was 36 years old to admit proudly my full nerd and love of technology, it is a valid question. As the industry was changing and we shifted from film to digital, a hole developed in our workflow. It was becoming less about collaboration and more about the urgency to make it work with everyone, regardless of their location or where they were in the workflow. I had this urge to understand what was happening and why.
There had to be a way that technology could work seamlessly and aid the artist rather than hinder the artist, while also saving time and money. That whatever the artist could imagine could be created and understood by all the other artists tasked to bring the film to life. Content could be three dimensional and a user or audience member could be stimulated by a multi-level experience.
In the entertainment space this had to be possible, right? Wrong. So how do you solve a problem like this? Take it to the beginning. How do we create in the first place? Through collaboration. How did Silverdraft happen? Through collaboration.
We needed to build a system specifically designed for artists, and with the kind of power their workflows needed. That’s big task, but if you have enough power in the backend, and that power could infinitely grow, there would be no hang up. Open minds came together.
We listened to the artists, their pain points and needs. Mind you, when I say artist that means all involved to create and make content happen: Producers, VFX, Directors, Actors, Colorists, Editors etc. We asked ourselves, what do we need to build to handle and push and pull an endless size of data and ever-changing technology? How could we evolve our architecture to make it cost effective, and handle current hardware and software to solve these problems, without dictating an artist’s workflow?
We feel we accomplished that with Silverdraft and the Devil & Demon Strategy.
Together, our continued goal is to anticipate a need before it becomes a need. We are partnering with Micron and AMD. This allows us to forecast and design for what is coming down the pike before it hits the market. We can target the needs of the artist and together design components to meet those needs. This is essential for Silverdraft as we must evolve quickly in our architecture so as to not hinder the artist.
I started down this path because collaboration is what gave me my love of film. I want to see great art, and I love working and collaborating with amazing, brilliant minds who thrive by solving problems, or as I would say puzzles. Therefore, I will forever embrace the technology nerd and artist within myself!
Amy is passionate about giving artists the freedom to be creative in their work. She is the driving force in both the business and capital development segments of Silverdraft, staying closely involved in the company’s relationships with entertainment companies and technology partners.
Amy’s company, Silverdraft, recently announced The Devil & Demon Strategy, a line of powerful and cost effective computing solutions for the M & E market, and beyond.
She can be reached at [email protected]